New Germany man to be tried for wife's murder next May

BRIDGEWATER — The man charged with shooting his estranged wife in the head after she came out of the grocery story in New Germany more than two years ago will stand trial for her murder next May.

But Wayne Paul Eisnor’s mental fitness will likely be an issue again, even though he has already twice been found fit to stand trial.

“The issue of fitness is always a live issue throughout the entire proceedings,” Crown attorney Lloyd Tancock said outside the courtroom where Eisnor had briefly appeared before a Supreme Court justice Thursday morning.

Eisnor has amnesia due to a bullet wound to his head, suffered June 30, 2010, the same day Tina Mae Eisnor was killed outside Barry’s Freshmart in New Germany.

Defence lawyer Roger Burrill told Justice Richard Coughlan Thursday the preliminary issue of Eisnor’s mental fitness needs to be addressed before the trial begins. He said a decision needs to be made as to whether the issue should go before the jury that will hear the trial, and if so, how it will be handled.

Coughlan scheduled a pretrial conference with the two lawyers to discuss these issues on Jan. 3. The trial itself is scheduled to run for nine days, beginning May 13.

The Nova Scotia Criminal Code Review Board found Eisnor fit to stand trial in July 2011, and a provincial court judge ruled in April 2012 that Eisnor is fit to stand trial. With that decision, Eisnor was transferred to jail from the East Coast Forensic Hospital in Dartmouth.

Tancock said in an interview he expects Burrill to make Eisnor’s fitness to stand trial an issue in his direct address to the judge in a report to be filed Dec. 31, and more fully at the Jan. 3 conference. The judge could then make his or her own determination on fitness, decline to deal with it, or decide to put the issue before the jury that hears the trial.

“It could entail calling all of the same evidence that we’ve heard before or different evidence,” Tancock said.

“Fitness is a point-in-time issue, unlike criminal responsibility,” which deals with an accused person’s mental condition at the time the offence is committed. “But fitness is a live issue for whenever he appears in court,” Tancock said.